While regular clothes washing will remove most dirt and stains from clothing, it is often inadequate to kill bacteria and other infectious disease agents that may be carried by the clothes. This is particularly the case where cold water washing cycles are used, which are more frequent in modern, energy-saving, washing machines. To address this problem, it has previously been proposed to expose clothes to UV light during some point of the washing and/or drying cycle.
There is a potential for eye damage with direct exposure to a UV light source, however. As a consequence, many prospective users would be reluctant to use a UV light device in a laundry ball form, which is highly portable and might easily be obtained by an unauthorized user, like a small child. Additionally, given the very dynamic environment inside laundry machines, it can be difficult to determine when adequate UV light exposure has occurred for a desired sanitization or disinfection effect. Thus, while UV light offers a potential benefit in the area of disinfecting clothes, further improvements are possible.